My decorating project

Remember when I was going to put up motivational quotes and posters on the garage walls, and I bought a little speaker system for the iPod so I didn't have to drag the one from the house over to the workout area, and I was going to really bust ass [and biceps and abs] with the strength-training routine?

And then I hurt my shoulder?

Well, I've been testing the waters, as it were, and I'm doing pretty well. I think it's helping my shoulder, actually, to lift some weights – like physical therapy, only I don't have to pay!

I've yet to put up the posters and quotes, but that will change as soon as I get a frame for this. My daughter took the photo [and inspires me daily with her photographic eye] and, when I asked if she'd send me the image on a CD so I could print it out for my garage wall, she instead ordered a poster-sized print and had it sent to me.

She'll do it for you, too. But you'll have to pay. Heh.

I'm going to have the coolest garage in the Middle of Nowhere.

I have a football hangover this morning, and am beyond disappointed that the Old Guy didn't come through in the clutch. But Peyton's little bro' took care of business and, truly, the Giants deserved the win. The Packers seemed bent on self-destruction in that disastrous third quarter. How many penalties? Three? Four? I stopped counting.

As for the earlier game. Patriots over the Chargers. Who saw that coming? Yawn.

Since I'm training for a half-marathon, maybe I should mention that I ran six miles on the treadmill Saturday. I rule! I didn't like it and I wasn't fast and the ball of my right foot still hurt. I wondered all weekend if I should even keep training. Then last night I decided to take matters into my own hand – literally – and perform what Wendy calls "home surgery."

No sharp objects were involved in the operation, unless you count fingernails. If you gross out easily, STOP READING HERE.

I kept digging at that callous until I removed, literally, three little tiny pieces of fossilized flesh. I've always said the sensation I felt was like a pinprick. Now? Gone! I haven't tested it by running yet, but there's an easy run on the schedule for today and for the first time in ages I'm looking forward to it. No matter how hard I press down on the ball of my foot, I feel no pain. None.

I spent $300 last year searching for a shoe that didn't hurt my foot, when all I needed to do was a little self-mutiliation. Who knew?

Friday Quote Day

“A real decision is measured
by the fact that you've taken a new action.
If there's no action,
you haven't truly decided.”

“In essence, if we want to direct our lives,

we must take control of our consistent actions.

It's not what we do once in a while

that shapes our lives,

but what we do consistently.”

~ Anthony Robbins

Self-help books? Been there, done that. But I'll take a good quote from a self-help author any day, if it meets my needs. These two seem to do just that.

Right now, and for the foreseeable future, I need to stick to my weight-training plan, continue doing some kind of aerobic activity and, as always, watch what I eat. And not just what I eat, but how much of it.

The astute among you will notice I said "some kind" of aerobic activity. Hey, I'm a runner. What other kind of aerobicizing would I do? Well, for at least the next couple of weeks it's going to be rowing nowhere.

If I ever needed proof that even a few extra pounds is a few too many, I now have it. My feet are a mess; it's painful to walk, let alone run, although I tried to yesterday. I have multiple blisters, painful calluses and just general discomfort whenever I stand or walk. Rowing, while exerting a little pressure on the balls of my feet, is at least a sit-down exercise and I'm just going to have to suck it up and do it if I want to maintain any cardiovascular health while I heal.

This didn't happen after Country Music. I may have been heavier than I'd hoped to be, but all in all I did better then – in less expensive shoes and with no experience – than I did last Sunday at City of Oaks.

You see, once you start running in races, even when you know you're not going to win, it's about more than just crossing the finishing line. You want to do better than you did the last time. I've managed to do worse. I could make excuses for the Army Ten-Miler because it was just so brutally hot. But conditions in Raleigh could not have been more perfect.

So. No excuses! The decision has been made and the action has been taken. I've done my dumbbell/bench routine twice now, and will do it again Sunday. Three times a week, about 25 minutes per session, plus an almost-daily rowing session of at least 45 minutes. Saturday will be a total rest day.

Laura, I do the weights and then run right afterward. Splitting up a session usually means I don't do whatever the second thing is. I'm not sure what I'll do about weight-training and rowing. Rowing is such a full-body workout I might be too tired to lift right away. And my arms and back are tired after lifting, but I need those for rowing. I think this is just going to be one of those suck it up and do it things. And I forgot you were doing Indy. Isn't PQ doing that, as well?

Mary listed a few of her favorite artists-to-run-to yesterday, and Grumpy Chair is an Eminem fan. And also John Denver. What a combo.

I confess to listening to Eminem, as well. Before I started running, I found "Shake That" to be a pretty good marching beat for walking. But you don't want the explicit version if your children will be tuning in.

The hummus recipe is more of a throw-stuff-together affair than a real recipe. Grumpy Chair mentioned some time ago that she preferred cooked dried garbanzo beans to the canned variety, so I tried that and must agree. There's quite a difference. When I'm making hummus, I overcook them so they're very mushy. [If I want some for salads, soups or stews, I like them a little firmer.]

Hummus-like Dip
Four [or more] cloves fresh garlic, peeled
16-oz. bag of garbanzo beans, cooked until very soft
1/2 cup plain yogurt or light mayonnaise
2 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. hot sauce
2 tblsp. olive oil

In a food processer with chopping blade, process garlic cloves. Add garbanzo beans and process until thoroughly smashed. [No alcohol was involved in this recipe. Heh.] Add yogurt, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, and mix well. Drizzle in the olive oil.

This makes a lot of dip, maybe four cups? We like it with fresh vegetables or with pita triangles. Nutritional information? Your guess is as good as mine. Since everything in it is pretty healthy, I don't worry about it too much.

Finished the stockings. I need to get a pre-felting photo before I throw them in the washer. I didn't have time to look for sweater patterns yesterday but I did find one fingerless glove without a mate. So I started that. Don't want anyone to be lonely this winter. Heh.

Easing back into a routine

I did it! I loaded those teeny speakers with AAA batteries, grabbed the iPod and did a half-hour weight-training routine yesterday morning. Without motivational quotes. Just think how much more fun it will be when I get some posters made! Heh.

Three sets, 15 reps, six moves with eight-pound dumbbells, plus a couple more exercises on the bench, which has an extension for working hamstrings and quads. I could only do one set for the hammies. Plus 50 crunches. Plus a mile-and-a-half walk to the post office and back.

I just about broke my arm patting myself on the back.

Mary asked yesterday, rhetorically I'm sure, how many other 56-year-old women were out there running on Sunday. There were only 22 in my age group. We rocked! [Can you all tell I'm feeling a little better today?] My age-group winner came in in less than two hours. I doubt if I'll ever run even one mile at 6.5mph, let alone 13, so I feel pretty good landing in the middle of that pack.

M@rla, the turbulence workout you do sounds like a great alternative to my bench and dumbbell work. I know it's good to switch off every so often, so I've bookmarked it and will try to remember it when my enthusiasm lags. 'Cause you know it will. Also? It looks like I need to build up some muscle before trying it! M@rla also tagged me – that will have to wait until tomorrow. Thanks, Miss M! I won't have to think of anything to write about in the morning!

My son sent a few photos from race day. He mostly shot video, so no action images, but here I am at the finish, after a snack, contemplating the long, long walk back to the car.

Finally, you'll notice a new link if you scroll down the sidebar to the just plain "Links" section. It's called Free Rice, and it's a fun little word game that provides, um, free rice for the United Nations to distribute to help end world hunger. For those of us who could stand being a little hungry once in a while, this seems like good karma. Thanks to Kia for the heads-up!

Make a new plan, Stan

I was reading about cyclist Lance Armstrong's second New York City Marathon experience yesterday, in which he said: "Just like in cycling, your body weight is a huge factor. … It's no accident that the best in the world weigh 120 pounds."

Well, duh. I don't want to be the best in the world, but I'd like to do better than I did the last time each time I run. That won't always happen, but my excess weight certainly holds me back. I'm pretty sure my feet would be feeling a whole lot better today if there had been less of me pounding the pavement on Sunday.

While I can never even dream of weighing 120 pounds [I blew right by that sometime in junior high school I think], I can visualize myself maintaining 135 or 140 for more than five minutes. At one time I weighed 128. That seriously didn't even last a week. But I stayed around 135 for three or four years, 11 years ago.

As many of you know, this blog is called Shrinking Knitter because I started it as a method of accountability while I lost a bunch of weight. And I did lose a bunch – I've kept 25 to 30 pounds at bay for almost two years now. But I both want and need to lose more.

I've proven to myself that I can maintain a loss. It's time to move on. And down.

If you're still with me, you're probably thinking, "But she's been trying for-freaking-ever, and is doing all the right things and still that scale doesn't budge! She runs a bunch and eats right and what else can she possibly do?"

Quick time-out to show you my mileage for the past three months [plus Sunday's race]:
The thing I'm not doing is strength-training. We all know how vital it is. I know that when I lost 56 pounds 11 years ago, the weight started melting off after I started lifting. It's the one chink in my armor. I start and then stop. It's boring and I don't like doing it. I don't get that sense of accomplishment increasing pounds lifted like I do when increasing miles run.

I don't belong to a gym [there are none nearby here in the Middle of Nowhere], and do my [mostly non-existent] weight training in my garage with dumbbells, a barbell and a bench. I have a set of resistance bands, as well, but have never used them. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and boy, do I ever have good intentions.

What I don't have is a good follow-through.

I've experimented with different things to try to get myself to stick with it, and one of the things that does seem to help is music. Don't laugh at me, please, but I find unplugging the portable iPod speaker system and dragging it to the garage for each session to be enough of a deterrent to not do it at all. I'd call that the epitome of laziness, wouldn't you? So after much thought and a conversation with Lori, I decided just to go ahead and buy another speaker system, one that would stay in the garage.

The cool thing is that I had a $20 credit at Overstock.com and I found some wee little battery-powered speakers for less than $15. I love free stuff! The reviews were enthusiastic and positive and I didn't have much to lose, so I ordered them. They came while I was in Tennessee, but I haven't had even a minute to open or use them yet.

Today's the day. The blister hasn't healed enough for running today. I might try to cushion it somehow and take a short walk. And. I. Will. Lift. Weights. Two sets, 15 reps, lots of arm stuff and as much leg stuff as my quads will allow. If they scream too loudly, I'll do upper body today and lower body tomorrow.

The other thing I'm going to do is print some of the more inspiring Friday quotes in big letters and hang them on the walls of the garage where I can see them. Including …

make a new plan, Stan.

The other thing about strength training …

is that it's worked for me before. When I lost weight a long, long time ago, my strategy was to eat fewer than 20 grams of fat daily and work out like a maniac. I lost about 20 pounds in the first two or three months and then stayed the same. I was going to a lovely, fancy gym with all kinds of equipment and trainers and saunas, oh my!, so I talked with one of the staff and ended up working with a trainer to learn how to use the free weights properly.

Oh, my, indeed. I was so intimidated the first time I walked into that area of the gym. But learning to lift [instead of using the Nautilus machines] was all it took to start shedding pounds again. I lost 47 pounds in five months, lost five dress sizes and could wear anything I wanted. [One caveat: Eating a very low-fat diet makes you feel pretty crappy. But you'll look great!]

The difference between then and now, as I alluded to in the previous post, is consistency. When you're sauntering into a gym where all the staff knows you and your goals, you're not going to pussyfoot around on the treadmill at 2.5mph. You're going to grunt and groan and sweat and, um, show off every time you're in there. I alternated upper and lower body work, so I was in the weight room every day. Like I said, a maniac.

But it worked.

Maybe I should get a life-sized cardboard cutout of my old trainer and prop him up in the garage.

Why strength training is key to weight loss

Yesterday, Denise commented:

I find it interesting that you do the cardio and think that strength-training is the key. I do the strength-training and totally believe that cardio is the key to weight loss! I'm beginning to think that between us we've discovered the true secret - ya just gotta do BOTH! (Man, no wonder they kept that a secret - it sucks!)

This article goes into the whys and wherefores, which I'm sure Denise already knows. [The article also points to something to buy; ignore that!] Also, you can use Google to search "strength training for weight loss" to find more information. I like the friendly tone of this article, and it also specifically talks about what strength training can do for women. But it's quite long.

Basically, the higher your resting metabolic rate [RMR], the more efficiently your body uses the calories you consume. And the way to raise your RMR is to add more muscle. Also, five pounds of fat takes up more room than five pounds of muscle, as M@rla eloquently explains and illustrates here. So weighing the same, but having that weight be muscle instead of fat, makes you look hotter. Heh.

I've never had a scale that calculates my body fat percentage, but I'm tempted to get one. Perhaps seeing that number go down as a result of weight training would motivate me to do more, or at least to be consistent with it. Anyone want to weigh in on that idea?

But really, what could be more motivating than having Mich give me an attagirl?

I'll be on the bench and then doing my pyramid before 8 a.m., after which I will run four flat miles, after which I will get my teeth cleaned, after which I will shop 'til I drop.

After which I will [tomorrow morning] probably tell you how tired I am!

Friday Quote Day

"It is impossible to win the race
unless you venture to run,
impossible to win the victory
unless you dare to battle."
~ Richard M. DeVos

One last reference to the half-marathon. I couldn't resist; I've been saving it for the first Friday Quote Day post-race.

That quote is so pertinent to so many things we weight-loss bloggers struggle with. How many times have we tossed the "what happens if I quit" ball around? Do we accept the status quo or keep plugging away? If we stop [eating healthfully, exercising, attending meetings, journaling, add your own] or start [eating sugar, skipping breakfast, cutting out workouts], will we undo all we've done?

This is a battle, but just as you can't cross the finish line unless you cross the starting line, you can't attain a healthy weight by wishing it were so.

I might print that quote out great big and put it on the bulletin board on the wall behind my desk. Right next to my finisher's medal.

So. Jonathan has thrown down the gauntlet, claiming the Weight Watchers frozen fudge bar is better than my favorite from Healthy Choice. What say you? I was going to create one of those fancy-dancy web polls, but all that HTML stuff isn't really necessary.

Here are your choices; place your vote in a comment:

• Weight Watchers Giant Fudge Bar
• Healthy Choice Fudge Bar
• Fudgsicle Low-Fat Fudge Bar
• Blue Bunny Health Smart Fudge Bar
• Skinny Cow No-Sugar Fudge Bar
• Klondike Slim-a-Bear Fudge Bar

WS mentioned yesterday that in 16 months she's never used her oven. Believe me, if I'm cooking for one I don't go around throwing spinach lasagna together. This is my husband's new favorite dinner, and since he eats out frequently [because his work requires travel] I'm only too happy to make something he requests when he's home. It's really not that hard to do, though. Just kinda messy. And I definitely take advantage of pre-shredded mozzarella and sauce from a jar.

Ran four miles again yesterday, in about the same time as Wednesday. It's great to just run, with no speed goal in mind, but I do like to keep track. Today is a weight-training day. I bought another set of dumbbells, 8 pounds. I'm going to do the dumbbell moves with three sets of weights today, going from light to heavy and back to light. I know there's a name for that but I can't remember it now. I'll be going from 4 to 8 to 12 to 8 to 4. I suppose I could do the same thing with the bench moves, but I'm too lazy to get up and add more plates to the barbell and the other attachments on the bench.

That's kinda funny, actually. Here I go, working out with weights, but don't want to spend any extra effort rearranging plates. Sheesh.

Not to get political or anything, but what do y'all think of this?

On a personal note, happy birthday to my daughter! On May 4, 1970, while the National Guard was on alert in Ohio, I was in labor, about to have my first child. She's an important and valuable part of my life. I know she wouldn't be if it weren't for the gift of sobriety. And quitting smoking. Heh.

Time to knuckle down

All right. This blog is called the Shrinking Knitter for a reason. I started it as a way to stay accountable and get support while I was losing weight, and to talk about knitting once in a while. Hmmmm. For the past four months it's been about running.

I thought when I started the blog that I would forevermore be a fitness walker. That was okay, but I do love to run and I'm glad to know I still can. Barring injury, I should be able to keep on running for many more years.

So it's time to use running as a weight-loss tool, along with weight training and nutrition.

In order to continue running for fitness, I'll need to eat good, clean carbs – whole grains, vegetables and fruit. I got pretty sloppy with food as race day approached, although it didn't do any damage. I'm the same weight today I was in January.

Hey! I can maintain! Heh.

In order to build muscle, I'll need to eat high-quality protein – chicken, tuna, Boca Burgers [we love Boca Burgers around here!], etc. I wasn't as sloppy with protein as I was with carbs, but there's always room for improvement.

Jonathan commented the other day that all the little things I did consistently led me to the finish line. Since he said that, I've been trying to pinpoint what some of those things were.

I'm going to use my Mac's calendar application to create a workout schedule that I can print out. As each day's activity is completed, I'll cross it off or put a star on it. Doing that was very helpful as I trained for the half-marathon.

Since it works so well for exercise, I'm going to do some menu planning as well. The YOAD idea of eating the same breakfast and lunch is a good one. I'm okay with Shredded Wheat or Fiber One, skim milk and fruit for breakfast. [I'll go back to steel-cut oats when it gets cold again.] I also like yogurt/fruit/skim milk smoothies. I need to keep fresh salad greens on hand, along with chicken strips, tuna and low-fat cheese for lunch.

I want to have a vegetarian meal at least once a week for dinner, and won't have any trouble coming up with ideas for that, or for the rest of the week, for that matter. The YOAD book and the internet are both rich sources of dinner menus, as long as I'm willing to use them.

I've been very sloppy about eating in the evening. I'm not sure when I picked this habit up – I never used to do it, but I was able to justify an evening snack because I knew I'd be running the next morning. I'm going to start breaking that habit tonight, by brushing my teeth as soon as I'm finished with dinner. I'm not hungry in the evening; it's just a bad habit.

The goal for race training was to cross the finish line. It would be great if I could set a weight-loss goal and have it happen simply by eating cleanly and exercising consistently. But if you've been here a while, you know I've been there, done that. I guess the reward has to be simply stacking one good day on top of another. I think it will result in a few more pounds lost, but I don't dare put A Number out there.

I lifted weights yesterday and feel deliciously sore this morning. I did two sets of 12 reps of several different moves, some on the bench and some [curls, squats, kickbacks] not. I tried to use the same go-get-'em mindset with the weight training that I used with running. Today I'm going to run/walk four miles on my good old mountain road. I can't wait to get out there and pick up the pace again! My knee was fine yesterday and feels perfectly normal today.

I guess what I learned most during the race training was how capable I really am. [I'm getting a little teary!] And I'm not done.